Double Date
by iloveCoD
Summary: See what happens when Mal and Natara go on a double date at Osaka! My first One Shot.


**Hi everyone! I know I haven't updated my other story in a while but don't worry, I'm working on it, promise! In the meantime I came up with this one shot and I just couldn't get it out of my head so I had to post it. I also changed my writing style a bit for this story, so tell me which one you like best? And tell me if I should make more stories like these. Any tips, review? Enjoy... **

After a rather uneventful day at work both partners sat at their respective desks finishing up the paper work. It's been a month since the Livewire case, and believe it or not, nothing much has changed. Everyone at work was still getting accustomed to the loss of Captain Yeong, Amy, and of course, Ken. Kai remained being well, Kai, while Blaise and Redbird were getting along okay these days. Mal, however, still hasn't confessed his love for Natara due to the circumstances of her break up with Oscar. He was determined to help her now more than ever, after all she was engaged to the guy and it definitely must not be easy for her.

"Hey, you ready?" asked Mal rather unsure.

"Yep. You?" answered Natara, smiling.

"Uh, yes… Listen Nat, I was hoping I could talk to you about something, err personal."

"Oh, okay… What is it?" Natara's smile faltered faintly as she analyzed the somewhat peculiar question.

Mal saunters over to Natara's desk and much to her surprise, he sits on it, looking like he's done it a thousand times. He gulps trying to swallow the lump in his now dry mouth. He pretends to hide his nervousness by flashing her a charming smile, before continuing, "I-I was wondering if you would… uh, do me a huge favor? You know the kind that I could only ask from my best friend… Heh."

"Mal." Natara responds, with an evident seriousness in her tone.

"Hey! Hear me out okay?"

"Go on" Natara retorted.

"Thing is, I happen to know this really great girl, and I kinda, sorta, invited her on a double-date… There I said it" Mal stated.

"Well that's great Mal! Why would you be worried about telling me? I mean, I know I'm single now but-"

"Including you, me, her, and well-"

"Wait, what?" Natara shouted angrily. "No, no, no, no! You did not just set me up with some guy friend of yours so you could go on a date with your crush Mal."

"Did I mention I really, really like her?" asked Mal innocently.

At this point Natara stood up from her chair and turned away from Mal as she said softly "I can't believe you would do this Mal… I-I'm not ready to date again, not now, not any time soon."

"Nat…" he said, standing up and placing a hand on Natara's shoulder. "Hey, come on don't be like that, please. I can cancel if you don't wanna go. I just… well I wanted to hear what you thought. I mean what kind of friend would I be if I didn't encourage you to go out and have some fun after what happened with Oscar and all."

Natara stands there frozen a few seconds and sighs. She finally turns around and gives Mal a slight thankful smile. "I guess… you really like this girl huh?" Mal laughs triumphantly before giving Natara a quick peck on the cheek, leaving Natara stunned. She's completely lost with words, something that never happens to her, and a small, pink blush creeps to the sides of her cheeks. Before she can even say anything Mal is already making his way to the exit.

"Pick you up at six?" he asks enthusiastically. Without waiting on the answer he leaves, happiness is written all over his face…

* * *

It's exactly five minutes till six and Natara adds the finishing touches to her makeup. She takes a look at her hourglass figure in the mirror. She smiles contently with what she's wearing, a black skinny dress and pumps, simple yet elegant. In a hurry she glances at the clock, swings her purse over her shoulder, and walks outside. While she locks her apartment she hears the engine of a familiar car, Mal's. He lowers the passenger window to greet her, only to receive Natara's confused look in return.

"Mal, where are our dates?"

"Uh, they're meeting us at the restaurant of course! Sorry I forgot to tell you" he answers sweetly.

"Anything else you forgot to tell me?" Natara asks while cocking an eyebrow and getting in the car.

"Yes. Only that you look amazingly beautiful partner. And to think you didn't want to go on this date" he says with a smirk growing bigger by the second.

"Thanks. And yes, well I wouldn't want to make you look bad."

"Heh, I really appreciate you doing this Nat. You'll see this might turn out to be a good thing after all. Chad isn't so bad. He's funny, charming, caring, smart, nothing like Oscar, all a woman could ever ask for, right?" he chuckles, while Natara can only shake her head in amusement.

"Alright, where are we going then?" Natara asked with newfound interest.

"Osaka" he answered plainly.

Natara opened her eyes wide at the sound of the word, she almost couldn't believe it. "Wow Mal. Osaka?"

"Mhm, ever heard of it? It's a Japanese restaurant" he stated confidently.

"Yea and you forgot very fancy and expensive too. I know I said this before but you really really must like this girl, and you haven't even told me her name yet…"

"I have a feeling you'll find out soon enough… since we're here and all."

* * *

In the very far corner of the room there's a table with a gray stove-like surface in the middle and four chairs around it, only two are occupied at the moment. Mal and Natara are both sitting in front of each other observing their beautiful surroundings.

"You like it?" Mal asks excitedly.

"Uh, Yes! It's perfect, Mal. I've always wanted to come here, but…"

"But?"

"What happened to our dates?"

"I-I don't know, I'm sure they'll be here any second" Mal says with uncertainty.

"Mal, I'm sorry to say this, I know you really liked this girl, but they're already fifteen minutes late. I don't think they're coming. Maybe you should call them? Or… should we go?" Natara says while placing her hand on top of Mal's and squeezing it gently.

"Naw it's fine really. I should be the one apologizing. I know I was the one that got you in this whole mess when you didn't really want to and I'm sorry you didn't get to meet Chad" he answers rather glum and avoiding eye-contact.

"Don't worry. As a matter of fact I'm glad it's only the two of us."

"Really?" Mal asks while looking up at Natara with sparkling eyes.

Before anyone can say anything else a Japanese man in a red chef suit interrupts. "Hello, ready to eat?" Natara quickly shifts her attention to the chef now standing in front of them ready to cook their evening meal. "Yes!" she replies with a cheerful smile on her face to which Mal only laughs.

The rest of the evening passes by rather quickly, with nothing but small talk in between eating their food and watching the chef prepare it, both Mal and Natara were fascinated. The way the chef skillfully handled the knives and utensils for preparing the food was amazing, he tossed them around like he was juggling. It looked so easy when he did it. He started by preparing the fried rice, which he placed on the steaming hot stove-like table. Then he took two eggs and threw them up with his spatula. Just before they could land on the table he caught them with his spatula once again, spun them around and cracked them open, gaining a 'wow' from both Natara and Mal. He mixed the egg with the rice and while the rice cooked, he continued by cutting the vegetables with such an incredible speed that only a machine could go and mixing them with the meat. The only vegetable that he left intact was the onion, which he took and carefully separated the rings, placing them on top of each other to form a mini volcano. Both Mal and Natara placed close attention at this, taking wild guesses at what he was about to do. After pouring some chemicals inside the top hole of the volcanic onion he took a lighter and light up the onion on fire. The onion itself didn't burn it only stood there shooting up flames while Natara and Mal gasped obviously impressed. Then, for the finale, when the onion cooled down the chef added more chemicals making the onion bubble like true lava from a volcano, making Natara and Mal smile even more. They ate their hearts content, enjoying each others company, and the spectacle that the chef put up. It was clearly an exciting night…

* * *

"So did you like it?" asked Mal while parking in front of Natara's apartment, and looking at her with a cute smile.

"Are you kidding? Of course I liked it. I loved it, Mal. Thanks, thanks for everything."

Natara makes eye contact with Mal as they exchange their last glance before going their own ways. They both smile tenderly at each other and with a wink from Mal Natara makes her way to her apartment door.

"Wait, Nat!" Mal calls while imitating Natara's actions and exiting the car.

"What is it?"

"There's… um there's something you should know" Mal answers, again avoiding eye contact and looking at the floor. Natara notices this and walks closer to Mal, putting her hand on his bicep, gaining his full attention once again. "Yes?" she answers, encouraging him to continue.

"I… sigh. There never really was a double date. I'm sorry I-I made it up, it's just I wanted to take your mind off of things and I didn't know how else to do it. I wanted to convince you and-"

"I know Mal." Natara cuts him off and chuckles at Mal's confused look.

"Wait, what? How? How did you-" asked Mal incredulously.

"Heh. Well, first of all you didn't want to tell me the girl's name. Second of all, Chad, really? I came up with that name!"

"I uh… He could be an actual friend of mine FYI. Did you ever stop to think about that?" Mal retorted.

"I did actually and I've never heard you talk about a 'Chad' considering you tell me everything. And third of all, I could see it in your eyes at the restaurant! You can't lie to me Mal Fallon, I know you too well" Natara stated as matter of fact.

"Unreal. Just… unbelievable" murmured Mal. Natara never failed to impress him again and again. He bit the inside of his cheek to avoid a smile from forming, only making Natara giggle uncontrollably. "Admit it. You never saw that one coming, Detective" she added happily. She smirked one last time before turning around towards the door of her apartment. She started unlocking the door and called out to Mal "Good night."

In return, Mal just stood there hand on his hips, still trying to figure out what just happened. He kept on observing Natara, mesmerized like many times before. He shook his head lightly at the events of the night. His smile got bigger by the second as he thought how perfect this really was and finally decided to taka advantage of it.

"Oh, I'll show you!" he said as he leapt from where he was standing and landed next to Natara. Who startled, spun around, allowing Mal to pick her up like a little girl. "Mal, what are you-" she protested but before she could finish her question Mal cut her off meeting her lips with his in passionate kiss. Taken by surprise Natara tensed up at first but eventually relaxed comfortably in Mal's strong arms and closed her eyes. The kiss itself was something magical. The best any of them ever had. After what seemed like an everlasting of seconds Mal was the first to pull away, thankful that Natara still had her eyes closed he said "I love you." As these words that Mal has been meaning to say since he first met Natara left his sweet lips her eyes fluttered open and met his loving gaze and charming smile. That's when she realized, or rather confirmed that this was the perfect man for her, her prince charming. The one who made her smile and understood her better than anyone else and without using profiler skills I might add. The butterflies in her stomach grew bigger as she said with an honest smile "I-I love you too Mal."

Mal took in what she said and he smiled like never before. He just couldn't believe that it was happening and he was over flooded with happiness. He's been waiting for this moment to happen for so long now that when it finally did he didn't know what to do. He did the only rational thing to do. He followed his heart not his head and gave the cheesiest smile while kissing Natara over and over; first her forehead, then her cheeks, even her nose, making Natara giggle like a school girl.

"So you wanna do this again sometime?" Mal asked. Natara only pretended to be deep in thought a mischievous smile plastered on her face. "Do what?" she added.

"Go on a second date."

"Hmm… On one condition though."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"That you ask me out properly. Oh and no more Chad" she says grinning widely. They both burst out laughing gaining a few scolds from the neighbors. Mal eventually puts Natara down but refuses to leg go of her so he pulls her closer by grabbing her around the waist. Natara looks up at him with gleaming eyes and hooks her arms around his neck while resting her head on his forehead. They look into each others eyes lovingly neither of them breaking eye contact or the embrace. They both stay quiet for a while sharing a peaceful moment full of bliss.

"See you tomorrow then?" Mal asks softly.

"You know it!"

"Okay" says Mal grinning and giving Natara a quick peck on the lips.

Natara smiles shyly in return and turns around to go into her apartment but before she can make a move Mal pulls on her arm. He removes the space between them and gives her yet another passionate kiss. "I forgot to say good night" he says as a lame excuse and Natara can only laugh and slap him playfully in the arm.

"Night Romeo" Natara calls out before going in her apartment. She locks the door and watches through the window as Mal drives away. Leaning against the door Natara tries to calm down that warm fuzzy feeling at the pit of her stomach, after all she's still a serious FBI Agent and that kind of thing wasn't in her nature. Still she couldn't help it being with Mal and hearing those words from him, someone who she really loved after all. She's been dreaming of something like this since she was a little girl and it was finally happening. It felt perfect. Hesitantly she made her way to the small bedroom breaking away from her thoughts and getting her pajamas. As she made her way into the bathroom she started changing and then she brushed her white teeth, still in a trance, until she heard a sound coming from one of the nearby windows. At first, she thought it was some kind of bird, but eventually curiosity took over her and she decided to investigate.

The noise grew louder and constant as if something was trying to get her attention. She checked all of the windows in her bedroom until only one was left, the one near a tall tree. In a hurry Natara opened the curtain as she inspected the window and squinted trying to figure out what was bothering her so much. Trying a different perspective she opened the window and popped her head out finally finding some answers.

"Special Agent Natara Williams, would you go out with me?" the voice asked.

Yes, it was Mal. He struggled on one of the branches on the tree. He had his legs apart as if he were riding a horse; he tried to keep balanced with one hand while the other was full of tiny pebbles. The moon illuminated his handsome face and he had an evident smirk. Natara was left speechless by the surprise, who knew Mal could be such a cheesy guy?

"Err… Nat? A little help? The wind is not helping me keep my balance I think I'm about to slip…" Mal said a little worried.

"Sure… monkey boy" answered Natara grinning. She extended her arm as far as she could and Mal grabbed it confidently. She pulled him with her and he climbed into the room. Thankfully they were both safe and Mal sighed with relief "Phew." He turned around only to find Natara in front of him smiling as she put her hands on his soft chest.

"Mal Fallon…" she said.

"Hmm" he answered, blushing slightly as she said his name.

"You are such a softie" Natara responded before connecting her lips to his in a long tender kiss. She felt the corners of his mouth turn into a smile and his arms wrapping around her tightly, never letting go…


End file.
